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Wii to Get Video and Food Services In Japan
Japanese Wii owners will soon be able to order food and watch a video without dropping their Wiimotes.
By Kris Pigna, 12/27/2008
Remember back in the GameCube days, when Nintendo would always insist it was purely about gaming and nothing else? Clearly, they've thrown that philosophy out the window. In 2009, Nintendo plans to bring two distinctly non-gaming services to the Wii in Japan: Video-on-demand, and the ability to place food orders online.
According to an AFP report, Nintendo will be teaming with Dentsu Inc., a leading advertising firm in Japan, to launch a video service on the Wii sometime next year. Curiously, the focus of the service will be on original programming created by Nintendo specifically for the Wii. Nintendo and Dentsu will also solicit other businesses to develop video content for the Wii, as well.

"Nintendo and Dentsu shall use the environment surrounding the Wii so that living rooms with Wii-ready TVs would become more of a fun area for communication among families and friends," both companies said in a joint statement. While we imagine the original programming will be created specifically for the Japanese market, it seems this service may potentially come to North America as well, as they'll be looking toward "expansion to foreign markets" in the future.

And what better way is there to spend a night indoors than with dinner and a movie? Well Japanese Wii owners won't have to leave their console for either part, as Nintendo will launch the "Food Delivery Channel" on the Wii next spring. As Kotaku reports, the channel will use the Japanese food ordering site Demae-can.com, and will allow Wii owners to purchase a variety of food types: pizza, sushi, curry, Chinese food, Western food, and (naturally) Japanese food, for instance. And if someone can't decide what to get, the channel will even do it for them with a "roulette mode" that picks a meal at random.

Could there also be a chance for the Food Delivery Channel to hit North America as well? Don't hold your breath or anything, but who knows -- if you could order pizza through EverQuest, we guess anything's possible.